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1st Gen. Ram - All TopicsDiscussion for all Dodge Rams prior to 1994. This includes engine, drivetrain and non-drivetrain discussions. Anything prior to 1994 should go in here.
Good progress Oliver! Do you have a transmission input shaft laying around with good splines to double check your clutch alignment? Sounds like you put some time into it already but might be worth a look see.
Those mold formed plastic jobber alignment tools that come with clutch kits will get a guy close but they never align as accurate as an actual machined input shaft. Takes a little more finesse and patience when tightening pressure plate bolts if using a metal input shaft as an alignment tool but might save yourself some grief putting trans back in and give a smoother pedal feel. Not preaching. Just sharing.
Good progress Oliver! Do you have a transmission input shaft laying around with good splines to double check your clutch alignment? Sounds like you put some time into it already but might be worth a look see.
Those mold formed plastic jobber alignment tools that come with clutch kits will get a guy close but they never align as accurate as an actual machined input shaft. Takes a little more finesse and patience when tightening pressure plate bolts if using a metal input shaft as an alignment tool but might save yourself some grief putting trans back in and give a smoother pedal feel. Not preaching. Just sharing.
The plastic input shafts are only so good. Once I opened up the clutch it slid it easily. The other thing that was making the transmission install a little trickier is that I had two PTO cooler plates installed on the transmission with both of the lower transmission in bell bolts trapped by the cooler. This gave me a small range of movement without tighten up the lower bolts as i got things to come together.
The keyboard on my 8 year old computer died last week, so I have not been on DTR much the last week.
My daughter has been here for the week, so we have been doing some work on it everyday.
The frame that had not gotten painted with the old motor in place got cleaned up and painted.
New transmission and motor mounts where installed. The transmission crossmember was cleaned up.
The cab floor was cut for the 4x4 and 5 speed shifter holes. Charlotte and I cut out an old 5 speed transmission tunnel out of a rotten out W-350 trucks cab I had. We used the 4x4 transmission tunnel as a template to mark out where to cut the holes on the 2wd cab floor. Using a jigsaw and a hole saw we made two clean holes.
The motor that came out of the 2wd donor that I KDP'ed, re gasket a few things, and installed the 7 blade HX35 of a '01 was installed with the rebuilt Getrag and NP-205 in the 4x4 frame this morning.
My daughter and I had a pretty good time working on the project this week. I will get the engine and transmission wiring harness mounted up.
Crossover steering is also on the list. I got the pitman arm pulled off the old 4x4 steering gear, so I am ready to install the custom pitman arm in the Offroad Design kit.
I will try to save dropping the cab down on the frame till next week when I get Charlotte back over for the week.
What kind of keyboard do you need? I have an old one with a PS2 style round plug that you can have for free.
Edwin
It is an older Apple with a wireless keyboard that take 2 AA batteries.
I was wiggling the batteries and tapping the keyboard this morning and it started working again....COOL!
How old is Charlotte now? It's great that she enjoys helping you and is learning to wrench!
She is 17 and school is out for the year due to the Corona virus. She has classes that meet everyday on the computer and projects to send it daily M-F.
I told her yesterday, to ask her teachers if she could get some school credit for working in the shop with her dad. It would be a great learning experience, and I would love to spend more time with my kid. She would be able to figure out if she like working on old Dodges, or if she wants to do something else.
It is an older Apple with a wireless keyboard that take 2 AA batteries.
I was wiggling the batteries and tapping the keyboard this morning and it started working again....COOL!
So you borrowed a few tips from our Canadian Sasquatch on electrical repair .. what size hammer did you use for the taps
She is 17 and school is out for the year due to the Corona virus. She has classes that meet everyday on the computer and projects to send it daily M-F.
I told her yesterday, to ask her teachers if she could get some school credit for working in the shop with her dad. It would be a great learning experience, and I would love to spend more time with my kid. She would be able to figure out if she like working on old Dodges, or if she wants to do something else.
I was thinking she was about my youngest's age (18).
Here in KY we have EEO or Enhanced Educational Opportunity. It's a form the principle signs off on. I've used it for my kids helping at the International Livestock Exhibition, visiting various cultural attractions and other experiences. I'd think in these times they would be even more open to options. Wrenching would be a good Career Tech opportunity.
I was thinking she was about my youngest's age (18).
Here in KY we have EEO or Enhanced Educational Opportunity. It's a form the principle signs off on. I've used it for my kids helping at the International Livestock Exhibition, visiting various cultural attractions and other experiences. I'd think in these times they would be even more open to options. Wrenching would be a good Career Tech opportunity.
Charlotte looked at an automotive school option last year with her school. She is not sure what she wants to do after her senior year, next year.
My work is pretty slow with the Corona thing going on right now. I have several friends that are teachers and they say it is pretty tough to teach over the computer screen.
Maybe this is all a sign that I should be more focused on teaching her the things that I know and enjoy working on.
I have another [at least] 4 Dodge Cummins swap projects I have collected over the years, here just waiting for the time to build them. Kinda like home schooling, just in the shop...
The teachers at her school know Charlotte spends time in the shop with dad already, so I would think they would support this idea. Her drivers ed. teacher had the class swap out a tire for the spare as one of their lessons, but the teacher asked Charlotte to please sit that one out and not give out hints to her other classmates.
04-04-2020, 10:02 AM
...Ben
